Sunday, November 28, 2010

THAT was an election?

After the day we've had here, it's stunning to look at my latest headlines page and see "Bulldog fear after toddler death" but no mention of the elections in Haiti -- how voters with registration cards were turned away from voting centers because their names were left off of electoral rolls, how Inite party members disrupted the counting of ballets in numerous places when they saw they were losing to RDNP, how some voting centers never received ballots and others didn't receive enough, how protesters exchanged rocks with Haitian National Police bullets in the Artibonite, how ballots were stolen and ballot boxes stuffed, how 13 out of 15 candidates are calling for the elections to be annulled and how thousands have taken to the streets of Port-Au-Prince to peacefully protest.

Equally stunning is the UN's announcement that the elections went well. I wouldn't even call what I saw today elections.

I wish I had the energy to tell you more about my day of monitoring or even upload a photo or two (though Ben's pictures from Port-Au-Prince will be much, much better, I'm sure). I'm still in the Artibonite and, god-willing, will be returning to Port-Au-Prince tomorrow morning. More then.

2 comments:

You sound so deflated, Honey. (With reason, on several counts.) At least NPR considers it to be a big story and a crooked election. Try to remember that God is in control, and he loves him some Haitians.

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“When I told my friends that I was going to Haiti they raised their eyebrows. “Haiti,” they said. “But that’s the place where they kill their presidents and eat their babies. You’d better buy yourself a large-sized gun.”

- Alec Waugh, The Sugar Islands

Get to know us

Ben is a freelance photographer. Alexis works with Other Worlds in supporting grassroots movements towards economic, social and gender justice, prior to which she did advocacy work for the Mennonite Central Committee. We've lived in Haiti since 2008.

This our personal blog and posts do not necessarily reflect the views of our employers. Making a frequent appearance is Luna, our cat.